by Aneko Yusagi
“Brother, you look incredibly evil right now,” Fohl observed.
“You really like making that face, don’t you, Naofumi?” Ren added.
“That’s the appeal of little Naofumi,” Sadeena said. At her comment, Fohl and Ren looked away. Yeah, I could understand how they were feeling, although I wasn’t sure I really looked that evil.
“You think so? I think brother is more . . .” Fohl struggled to find the words.
“I don’t agree either. He’s actually very caring. Look at the slaves. Naofumi has such a hard time looking after them,” Ren said. He was still banging that drum, was he? Enough!
“You think? I like this little Naofumi. I really do.” All this noise from the peanut gallery! My good points didn’t matter at that moment.
“Now, the final hope left to you . . . I’m going to take that too.” I placed my hand over the shield and activated the final trump card that Atla and the Shield Spirit had told me about. Everything up until now had just been for my personal enjoyment. If I’d done this from the start, there would have been no need to fight.
“The Shield Hero now orders you. Vassal weapon! Respond to my call, release the foolish binding on your power, and awaken!” The claws on Takt’s hands started to give off a pale light. Confirming that phenomenon, I continued my words. “Now I strip you from your vassal status!” One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—not just the claws but all the seven star weapons started to glow.
“W-what now? What’s going on? M-my strength is fading!” Takt was clearly unable to conceal his shock at this situation. It was a mistake for a single person to have multiple legendary weapons. The four holies and the seven stars weren’t intended to allow that.
“Find new owners and join with them!” I commanded. Seven balls of light flowed out from Takt, rising high into the air, and then scattered apart. Just like certain wish-granting balls from that manga with the dragon.
Ah. One of the lights was flying this way. Of course, Fohl was the hero who had been selected by the gauntlets.
“You’ve . . . even stolen the seven stars from me? Just what’s going on here?!” Takt was trembling in rage, but he looked pretty cheap and pathetic to me.
“What are you doing, stealing Takt’s weapons?! Return them!” one of his remaining retinue demanded.
“Those weapons never belonged to your man, eh,” said the past Heavenly Emperor, extending her hand into the air. “Huh?” She furrowed her brow as she watched the lights flying away. Then she smoothly avoided an attack from the fox woman, who had revealed her true nature.
“Divine Clash of the Five Practices!” the past Heavenly Emperor shouted. The mighty attack with the hammer caused a ying-yang magic circle to appear, which proceeded to entrap the fox woman. She gave a terrible cry as the light from the magic circle flowed forth and bound her in place . . . and then the past Heavenly Emperor crushed her head with her hammer.
“Raph!” Raph-chan adopted a victory pose.
“Tulina!” Takt screamed. Nice. I wanted to hear more of just those kinds of screams. I knew I was being pretty malicious, but I was also sure I could be forgiven for all this.
“I’ve just been toying with you this entire time. What are you getting so worked up about now? You worthless punk,” I spat.
“Die!” he screamed. Still unable to accept reality, Takt came at me with his bare hands. A meaty sound rang out, but the attack didn’t hurt at all. It just left Takt gasping for breath.
“You aren’t a hero anymore. You aren’t anything,” I taunted him. “Come on. If you can do it, turn this situation around.” What this all meant was now Takt wasn’t a hero anymore. It wouldn’t have any effect on the world if he was executed. There were all sorts of remaining issues, of course, including his relationship with the heroes who had already been killed. “Do you see now?” I continued. “This is the difference between a true hero and a false one. The age of you and your transient power is over. Now you’ll pay with your body for your crimes of toying with this world! Shield Prison! Change Shield (attack)!” A cage made of shields appeared around Takt, and then shields with spikes on them from Change Shield stabbed into him.
He gasped, but he wasn’t dead yet. I was still holding back, making sure not to kill him. I really wanted to, but there were still reasons to hold back. I also needed him to tell us about whoever was pulling his strings. Then there was my desire to catch Witch.
“Right, we’re finished here. Send the flare magic,” I commanded, just as Trash had planned. Sadeena raised her harpoon into the air and unleashed the magic. The staff would have made its way to Trash already, so he probably had a good idea of what was going on.
“Huh? Oh man—” I looked toward the battlefield and was stunned by what I saw. The smoke rising from the city didn’t bother me, especially as the fires looked like they were already out. The issue was closer to the fort.
There were mysterious scratches on the ground, big enough to divide the Faubrey forces in two.
“Naofumi.” Ren pointed beyond the battlefield. Trash’s operation had already wiped the enemy out. The Wisest King of Wisdom was clearly not to be messed around with.
It looked like those left alive were still putting up some resistance. It was likely Takt’s women. That would be over soon too, from the look of it. Half of the Faubrey forces were scattering like insects in this direction, while the others were surrendering. It looked like things were wrapping up. Maybe they could scrounge up a large enough force to take Takt back . . . but I had other things on my mind.
“Witch! You won’t get away from me this time,” I vowed. I needed to take Witch alive in Faubrey and then execute her. An evil smile rose on my face again.
Huh? There was something odd going on with Gaelion. He flew over to me in his baby dragon form. I shrank away a little, because he was still covered in blood and gore—although I had quite a lot of Takt’s blood on me already.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion cast some water magic and cleaned himself off. So he could use water magic. Then he landed on my shoulder and whispered in a small voice.
“I’ve obtained most of the fragments. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve remembered pretty much everything,” he explained.
“I see. That includes breaking the cap?” I asked.
“Yeah. That’s no problem for me now. But there was something even more important in the Dragon Emperor fragments,” he continued.
“What? Something I don’t know about?” I queried.
“If I unleash the dragon I sealed—I mean, by the Dragon Emperor—and then sacrifice two-thirds of the estimated world’s population, the waves can be—” Gaelion started.
“No. It’s not time for that yet. Keep it to yourself for now,” I told him. It meant Gaelion could now sacrifice himself, like Ost had. I wasn’t going to let him do that.
“Anyway. This means the fighting has finally finished,” I confirmed, looking around.
“That’s right, brother. We can finally take revenge for Atla,” Fohl said.
“Although we need to get quite a lot of information out of him first,” I added. Then I looked over at the past Heavenly Emperor—who was actually Raph-chan II in disguise, in fact—who was standing there with a hammer in his hand. “You’re full of surprises, huh.”
“That’s my line, eh. The soul of this old soldier should have vanished from this world, but to make use of a fragment like this . . .” the past Heavenly Emperor marveled.
“That’s not my fault,” I said. Raph-chan puffed up her chest, looking pleased with herself. She’d certainly helped out . . . but it did feel a bit out of place.
“Oh my.” Shildina had a complex history with the past Heavenly Emperor and was keeping her distance.
“So you’re one of Raphtalia’s ancestors?” I confirmed.
“There are only fragments of my personality, meaning I’m more like a newly born entity. I don’t have many memories either. I can’t provide much aid, eh,” she said.
�
�Not sure I really understand,” I said.
“Also . . . it consumes a lot of energy to maintain this form, and I’m still not especially comfortable with it.” In that moment, the past Heavenly Emperor started to crackle and shake. “Holder of the Shield Spirit’s implement in this time, be aware, eh. The vassal weapon battle is not yet—dafu!” It looked like her time was up, because the past Heavenly Emperor proceeded to turn back into Raph-chan II in a puff of smoke, then sit down. It looked like it really did consume a lot of energy.
“Sure, sure, I hear you. The battle isn’t over, right?” Looked like I’d need to have a longer chat with her, when I had more time. “Well . . .” I turned to look at Takt and his cronies. “In any case, you’ll find the sin of toying around with this world carries a heavy price.” I proceeded to hold the fort until receiving the report of victory from Trash, spending the time thinking of exactly what I was going to do to Takt.
The fighting finished and we returned to the village.
“You guys all okay?” I called out.
“Yeah! We’re all fine!” Keel energetically replied.
“No problems here, I say!” added Motoyasu. He was joined by an eager shout from his filolials, so they were all in one piece. Then the Raph species started raphing, and it seemed we had all of them too.
Good. It looked like almost no one at all had died in the fighting this time—on our side, anyway. Faubrey had been run almost into the ground.
“Rishia, congratulations on becoming an official seven star hero,” Itsuki said.
“Fehhh! How many times have you congratulated me now, Master Itsuki?” she asked.
“I thought I had better say it in front of everyone,” Itsuki replied. He had been praising her since we came back. She had officially been selected as the Projectile Hero. Her weapons had previously been transparent because the real one had been held by Takt . . . most likely, anyway.
It seemed the seven star weapons were indeed vassal weapons, and when officially recognized by the four holies, they could be summoned along the axis of the four holy weapons. The vassal weapon had perceived desired qualities in Rishia through the bow, but being unable to completely escape from Takt’s control, it had ended up bonding with Rishia in that incomplete form.
“Congratulations, Rishia,” Ren also chimed in.
“Thank you all,” she said.
“Hmmm . . . now Rishia is a hero. Then I have even more I must learn from this battle. I must dedicate myself harder,” Eclair announced. Her rival having received a significant power boost, Eclair also sounded ready to buckle down and apply herself further.
“Rishia, sorry to rush you, but tell me the power-up method,” I said.
“O-okay. The help for my weapon talks about enhanced customization via payment of money!” she said, her voice trembling with excitement. She might have climbed her way up to become a vassal weapon hero, but she was just as excitable as ever.
It did concern me a bit, having her be the one looking after Itsuki. At least he was pretty calm and laid back.
“Which means what?” I asked.
“I’m . . . not really sure myself, but it seemed you have to spend money to enhance yourself. It also only seems to work when combined with other power-up methods,” she explained.
“So it’s a unique and general-purpose means of enhancement?” Itsuki confirmed.
“Hmmm, like a jack-of-all-trades,” I mused. Very much like Rishia herself. That made sense to me.
“That’s right," Itsuki agreed.
“Fehhh . . . why does that make sense to you all?” she asked.
Money, huh. It was true: I’d never put any money into the shield. It had seemed like a waste. I gingerly tried putting a bronze coin in now.
There was a jingling sound and 1G appeared in my field of vision.
“Looks like bronze coins are 1G,” I said. Next, I put in a silver coin. The same sound played and the amount increased to 101G. Then I searched around for what I could do . . . ah.
“Power-up protector? It looks like it cancels out a failure at refinement, another four holy power-up method,” I reported.
“Sounds like something you’d see in an online game,” Ren replied, seemingly breaking into a cold sweat.
“Yeah . . . this is a pretty messed-up power-up method. Feels like a joke or something,” I complained—although the amount of money required was no joke! Seriously? This was one just for the billionaires. I didn’t think this world had microtransactions!
That said, it was also pretty convenient.
“Can I ask something else? What do you think this is?” Rishia said. And with that, Rishia removed something that looked like a strap from the bottom of her projectile and showed it to me.
“Dafu?” Raph-chan II pointed at it. It was some kind of accessory Takt had attached. I touched it to try and check it out, but in that same instant, it made a sound and split apart.
“What just happened?” I’d felt something unpleasant the moment I touched it. I still couldn’t shake off a foreboding feeling. It felt like there was still something unresolved there.
“The staff has also returned to the king. He said he would like to talk with you later,” Eclair said.
“Okay. I’ve got a lot to talk about with Trash too. I’ll head over later,” I replied. We’d driven Faubrey off so completely . . . Takt’s elite warriors were like garbage before us. Just how great was the Wisest King of Wisdom? No wonder the queen had kept him around. I really understood now what Trash was capable of.
Chapter Twelve: The Execution
Before the news that Faubrey had been defeated in the war could reach their homeland, we sent out a false message that they had actually won and that Takt’s harem was to gather in Melromarc. It worked like a charm, serving to lure out all of the other women in Faubrey with connections to Takt.
In regard to those women who had been forced into membership in his harem—the women who had been controlled by the fox woman’s illusions—those illusions had come to an end with the death of their mistress. However, this strategy to sweep up the women from Takt’s retinue had failed to catch one target—Witch.
She’d taken some other women with her from the building in which Takt’s harem had been living and then upped and disappeared. That seemed proof that she’d known Takt had been defeated in the battle. There were reports of her walking away, looking flustered. Maybe she just had good instincts, and maybe she had placed something on Takt that allowed her to know what was going on.
It had also come to light that the reason Takt hadn’t come after us right away when we tried to escape, after first encountering him, was because he had been helping Witch remove the high-level slave seal that had been placed on her. Doing so required the blood of the owner of the slaves—which had meant the queen. So they’d used her blood that had splashed onto the ground to break the seal.
The reason for removing the seal had been due to concerns about the master of the slave seal, as appointed by the queen, activating it and killing Witch.
It was all a bit much for me. We didn’t know where the remaining four seven star weapons had flown off to either. I wondered where they might have gone. Of course, the staff had returned to Trash, and Rishia had officially become the projectile seven star hero.
I was with the other heroes, sitting with the royal party during the execution. Trash and Melty didn’t look that happy about having to go through this. Melty was doing her best to avoid watching altogether, choosing to play around with Filo instead. When I’d suggested that maybe this wasn’t something someone of Melty’s age should be seeing, she’d replied that it was the duty of a member of the royal family.
“Come on! Spit it out! Who is the power behind you?” the executioner shouted.
“I-I can’t . . .” Takt stammered.
“Do you know what will happen if you don’t speak? Here’s a taste!” The executioner put the boot in.
“S-stop it!” Takt screamed. The false hero, the
one who had planned to take the world for his own plaything and overthrow it completely, was now facing public execution along with all of his allies. In order to maintain the authority of the heroes, not only the four holies but also those of the seven star heroes that we had among us were all in attendance for the execution. We’d let the coalition army and each nation know that the Zeltoble Dark Guild would be holding the executions. It was an organization well known for putting on a good show. Zeltoble had proposed the execution methods, and with the approval of each nation, it led to this execution.
I’d looked over the details myself, just to keep up to speed. The issue was how the executions were being performed.
First, after I defeated Takt, an hourglass had been used to reset his level, prior to his even regaining awareness. It happened to not just him, but all the women in his retinue. As a result, a group that had been at their lowest level of 250 were now a pathetic gaggle at level 1. It was almost painful to watch them. Some of them could barely move, although those who had been warriors were at least mobile.
I didn’t even know how many we had gathered in the end. Motoyasu had been running around collecting the women up. His comment had been, “So many pigs out there. So filthy, I say.” Quite different from his past self, when he’d been quick to flirt with anything in a skirt.
Back to the execution proposal that Zeltoble had made: Takt had his neck and hands placed inside wooden stocks, and then shackles were also placed on his feet, just to make sure he really couldn’t move. Literally the only thing he could do was watch. It might have seemed like overkill, but with the weird powers he had exhibited so far, it was worth playing it safe.
Those powers were also part of why we were torturing Takt. We needed to know what other abilities he had and what else he might know. Basically, we were using his women as hostages against him . . . but Takt showed no sign of cracking. Perhaps his secrets were more important than the lives of his women.
He’d started by claiming he didn’t know anything, but Sadeena and the Zeltoble torturer had quickly seen through those lies. He definitely had some kind of secret, but Takt also wasn’t going to spit it up. He was watching a procession of his women dying in front of his eyes. There being a near-infinite number of women in the world, maybe he thought he could just cast these off without a second thought.
